A Classroom Drill Sergeant “Fiercely Loyal” to His Students
PRWeek once described Gerald Powers (COM’56) as “perhaps one of the most well connected men in PR.”
A Classroom Drill Sergeant “Fiercely Loyal” to His Students
Gerald Powers taught public relations at COM for 35 years
Gerald Powers (COM’56), a College of Communication professor emeritus of public relations, was known as an exacting writing teacher who helped place students in jobs and internships at major agencies and firms around the globe.
“I like to stand up and play God in the classroom and to scare my students,” Powers told the defunct B.U. Bridge. “But I also tell them that one day they’ll be able to help me. And that’s what they do. When I call an old student to set up an internship for somebody, if they give me any grief I can say, ‘Hey, do you remember when I got you an internship in 1972?’”
That was 1999, the year he retired and was honored with the Publicity Club of New England’s Crystal Bell Award for lifetime achievement in public relations. At the time, PRWeek described him as “perhaps one of the most well connected men in PR.”
Powers died January 27, 2026. He was 93.
He graduated from Harvard in 1954 and earned a master’s in journalism at COM. He worked in public relations for several years and joined the BU faculty in 1964.
The Bridge noted, “While he has a reputation for being a drill sergeant in the classroom and a sometimes cantankerous personality outside it…he is downright sentimental when describing his relationship with former students.” Many of them attended the Crystal Bell ceremony.
The PRWeek profile noted that students also attended his birthday parties: “And when his mother passed away, several students drove into the early morning hours to go to the funeral. Several students also rushed to his bedside four years ago, when he was struck by an automobile while walking near his home, receiving a broken arm, scalp lacerations and broken ribs.
“‘I’m fiercely loyal to my students but they are to me, too,” Powers told the publication, “which is very gratifying.’”